Mary Baumgarten (Mon):
Dear Zayin 1 Families,
I am pleased to share that our first Mitzvah opportunity with Perspectives was a great success. We were able to complete the task of putting their community garden to rest for the season. A special thank you to our parents Alexei Sacks and Andy Karch for joining us.
Now that our Tishrei holidays have come to an end, I am very much looking forward to resuming our regular Monday evening classes.
We will begin our study of mitzvot with a discussion about the different types of mitzvot and the importance of all the choices each of us makes in our lives.
Our study of American Jewish History will begin with the arrival of the first Jews in America. One of our recurring themes will be how our ancestors integrated themselves into American society while still retaining their Judaism.
It is a pleasure working with your children.
L’hitraot,
Mary
Avi Baron (Wed):
Shalom and I hope your holidays went well!
After Rosh Hashanah, we had a lesson on Climate Change and Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. We discussed the impact humanity has had on our world and why our planet might require repairing. We’re currently bouncing around a few different classrooms at Talmud Torah, so I appreciate the understanding while we find our space.
In our previous class, we started a two-class topic on immigration. We learned about Ellis Island and Tenement Housing, had small group discussions and started talking about the New York Trip. I was pleased to see many students knew some basics for our New York trip, scheduled for April 23-25, and all had great questions to fill in blanks. This kicks off the topic of immigration that we will return to a few times throughout the year. This week, we brought Biblical Judaism into this more directly by tying in the Judaic ethic of Welcoming a Stranger and early next semester we'll call back to immigration when discussing the Jewish Diaspora.
In our Wednesday only class that goes to 8:45pm, we learned about the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber and his famous teaching on relationships being “I-it” or “I-thou” relationships. We categorized some examples in daily life (you and a cashier is I-it, you and a good friend is I-thou) and students brought up TV show friendships and relationships to help confirm their comprehension.